A wide variety of solar collectors are presently known in the prior art, some of which are designed as attachments to building structures or for inclusion in the roofs of buildings. A difficulty widely experienced by achitects, builders, and particularly the fabricators of metal buildings, is that known solar collector structures do not lend themselves to integration directly in the walls of buildings as presently constructed or fabricated. This incompatibility between solar collectors and conventional building wall structures has tended to make it impractical to include solar heating panels as a part of building walls, and therefore has significantly retarded the advancement of solar heating in various forms of building structures, and particularly in corrugated metal buildings.
Accordingly, a main object of the invention is to alleviate completely the above prior art difficulty by providing a solar heating collector or panel whose construction is simple and sturdy and fully compatible with the standard wall construction of corrugated metal buildings. By virtue of the invention, it is feasible to include in such buildings large solar heating wall panels while maintaining the full structural security of the walls and a fully acceptable appearance, all without any significant increase in construction costs. The self-contained solar heating wall panel is free of unsightly projections and has substantially concealed internal clips which are key elements in the panel assembly contributing to its full practicality.
Through the invention, entire building walls or large sections thereof may include solar heating panels which are able to supply up to sixty percent of the heating needs of a building in daylight hours. The heating panels can utilize natural convection of air through their plenums or a forced draft arrangement may be employed where desired. The construction of the solar heating wall panel in addition to being simplified and very sturdy is also compatible with ducting and air flow chambers found in conventional metal fabricated buildings.
A very unique aspect of the invention is the provision in the solar heating panel of clips which serve the dual purpose of providing the necessary uniform stand-off space between the adjacent corrugated panel sections and the mechanical connections at overlapping corrugations of the solar panel as well as the attachment of panel sections to rigid members or girts of the building.
Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent during the course of the following detailed description.